I’ve been to 2chef so many times by now that it’s starting to feel a bit same-old, but for a casual wine get-together there’s still no better choice, so I end up dropping by every time I’m back in Korea. (Probably next time too?) This time I went a whopping two times! so I’m putting both into one post.
I thought 2chef had settled in as Hongdae’s go-to spot for blind dates, but this time around most people seemed to be there for regular wine meetups or dates. There was only one blind-date couple.. Honestly, you don’t really drink wine on a blind date much.. a proper date, maybe..
The view out the window..
It’s on the 4th floor.
Bread
Fill the stomach first ^_^ then savour the wine at leisure..
Tonight’s main wine: Dominique Laurent Bonnes-Mares 1996
Bonnes-Mares is a Burgundy grand cru vineyard. To put it very simply, think of it as the equivalent of a Bordeaux First Growth. The price too..
It was my birthday that day so I was treating, but it didn’t deliver taste worthy of its price. It only started opening up bit by bit right at the end, once we’d nearly finished it. A shame, but hey, some days are like that.
Château Durfort-Vivens 2004
I keep a few bottles in 2chef’s cellar, and they got raided pretty hard that day.. It showed the elegance you’d expect from Margaux, but I was left wondering how it would have been if I’d waited a bit longer.
I already can’t remember the food…
They’d changed the menu, and maybe that’s why there were lots of dishes I hadn’t seen before. It seemed a touch better than before.
Salmon
This was a new dish too, I think.. The salmon was fresh and it was tasty, but the details.. This is exactly why I shouldn’t let posts pile up.
Gorgonzola fettuccine, was it..
The pasta dishes have improved a lot. Pasta depends so much on timing and heat that it’s no easy job to get it right in the middle of a course. So they seem to have switched to fettuccine, which is easy to make tasty and not fussy, and it holds its own against the other dishes. Well.. if they can afford it, hiring a dedicated pasta chef is one way, but then would they become Three Chef.. ^_^
I remember it as braised veal shank..
This post is turning out sloppy.. It seems to be a dish for people like me who are tired of steak, but the flavour didn’t make much of an impact, and the portion was huge. Maybe because I’ve been eating light lately, finishing it was a bit of a struggle.
Steak
Since my back-to-back wagyu steak outings, I’ve been trying to hold back on steak talk.
We ran out of booze, so one more bottle off the house list
Something-Antico (Monte Antico) was supposed to be good value, so we opened it, and it definitely was good for the price. But the wines we’d had before it were so good that it kind of got lost.
Shrimp
We were short on nibbles so we asked for one more dish. Food made with good ingredients is always at least decent, however it comes out.
Fig
Seems to be a dessert, but I just can’t remember..
Crème brûlée
The default dessert that always shows up
From here on it’s the food from the second visit. Just a small, low-key wine meetup.
Tomato starter
I remember it having lots of different things inside and being tasty, but the details are already gone.
Tasty pasta again this time..
It seems to suit 2chef’s style of cooking. Personally I like the painstaking La Bettola-style pasta too, but that’s only possible at a place guaranteed to turn its tables twice a day. There aren’t many Italian places like that in the world.
Lamb steak
This is the lamb steak, which you could call the house signature dish. The only problem, if it is one, is that I’m now tired of lamb too. These days I’d rather eat nothing but Korean food if I can.. But as long as there’s wine stashed in the cellar, the 2chef gatherings look set to carry on. Sigh.
Octopus carpaccio
I’m quite a fan of octopus dishes, and this came out tasty in a slightly sweet sauce. Very happy with it as a starter.. Being a little delicate is this place’s style, but for a guys-only gathering they could serve it a bit more rugged. Of course, for a gathering with women, this is just right.
Probably dessert
With my memory having always been shaky, even remembering the menu at a place I go to every time is a challenge. August–September was unusually busy (there were loads of trips), but even so I should have kept up with updates. From now on I’ll mend my ways and work hard at posting the backlog. About 15 to go..